"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell

"Men are so simple of mind and so dominated by immediate needs that the deceitful man can easily find those ready to be deceived."
Machiavelli

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bartlett Pares

I have occasionally noted that there remain a few sensible Republicans. Within that vanishingly small group is Bruce Bartlett, Reagan's chief economic adviser, to whom I've referred in the past. He keeps pouring the cold water of truth on the hot fire of right-wing rhetoric. Recently, titled "Reagan's Tax Increases," there's this:

It may come as a surprise to some people that once upon a time in the not-too-distant past Republicans actually cared enough about budget deficits that they thought raising taxes was necessary to bring them down. Today, Republicans believe that deficits are nothing more than something to ignore when they are in power and to bludgeon Democrats with when they are out of power.

That followed a statement, illustrated below, that made reference to:

the many tax increases supported and signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which eventually took back half of the 1981 tax cut

Some things in politics are simply so obvious that they ought not need stating. For example: to achieve sustainable fiscal sanity, we'll need a combination of tax hikes and spending reduction. Or this: health care reform will eventually require some form of public option that does not rely on insurance companies, and it will also need to include some sort of prioritizing of spending. Or this: lasting peace in the Middle East will include the relinquishing of some settlements and territory by Israel and the sharing of Jerusalem by the Palestinians.

What is in question is whether there will ever be politicians with the brains and guts and honor to say what does need to be said, and to do what needs doing. Sadly, it doesn't seem to matter that we have a president willing and able. He seems drowned in the din raised by the RWS™ and smothered by the cynicism of the current Republican leaders and the teabaggers to whom they pander. Truth and sanity have no place at their table. And as for the Democrats, strength and bravery have none at theirs.

2 comments:

Ummm yeah, takes alot of courage to keep the Bush Tax Cuts(Raise your hand if you took them:I know I did:))... in place for income under $250,000, which really isn't that much in a world where even economy cars cost $20,000. I mean I spent $10 for a bag of peanuts and a 16oz bottled water at the Braves game Monday night...Oh yeah, Obama(Peace be upon Him) DID raise taxes on indoor tanning and tobacco, jeez, thats almost Martin Luther King-ish in the bravery category...And how'd you link Health Care Deform to the Middle East???You can't negotiate with the A-rabs anymore than you could have negotiated with Hitler, which that Sissy Nivel(rhymes with Snivel) Chamberman did in 1938 when he gave Czechoslovakia to the Nazis. The Krauts didn't surrender until Russian Tanks were crushing the rubble from 3 years of daily carpet bombing, even then we had to hang all there political leaders, divide the country, and keep millions of American and Russian Soldiers there for 50 years, and make crummy Sit-Coms with Jewish Actors playing Nazis(I do a spot-on Werner Klempnerer(Colonel Klink) And the A-rabs are even more dedicated to there cause than the Germans were, and if it wasn't for there 5th century technical skills we'd be in real trouble. And "Sin Taxes" just make tax avoiders out of all of us, OK, sure its not as efficient to lay out in the sun for 2 hours when I could spend 10 minutes in the Ultra High Wattage Turbo Bed, and driving 200 miles to the Indian Reservation for a carton of smokes is inconvenient, but its like shoplifting, the exhilaration when you inhale a tax-free Marlboro lite...

For The Sake of My Sanity

Some will know me from my other blog, "Surgeonsblog." Of late I've given over to frothing at the mouth as the world descends into stupidity, and our politics and our citizens seem, in numbers enough to be meaningful, unable to see it. So for now I'm leaving surgery writing behind, if for no other reason than to defuse and diffuse my unrelenting sense of doom, and with no expectation of making a difference. These are things that, to me, are obvious. Except that, apparently, they aren't.

RWS™

RWS™: For those who drop by here in the middle, and wonder what it means: it's my shorthand for Right Wing Screamers, which includes such a long list it's tiresome to type it. (I distinguish these blowhards from thoughtful conservatives, of whom I sort of take it on faith that there must still be some.) You know who I mean: Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Breitbart (RIP), Malkin, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, Doocey (more of a drooler than a screamer), Hewitt, Goldberg, Gingrich, Kristol, Scarborough (+/-), Bachmann, Inhofe, Bond, Broun, Boehner, Kelley, Santorum, Cain. To name but a few. Behold them in their unrepentant disregard for reality: the RWS™